Swedish study links rare congenital infections to higher autism and intellectual disability risk
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet found that children born with rare TORCH infections face a markedly increased chance of autism and intellectual disability.
A large-scale analysis by Karolinska Institutet researchers used national registries covering births in Sweden between 1987 and 2021 to assess the long-term outcomes of congenital TORCH infections. Among the cohort, 975 children were diagnosed with a TORCH infection transmitted from mother to fetus. Follow-up over up to three decades showed that infected children had roughly threefold higher odds of an autism diagnosis and more than sevenfold higher odds of an intellectual disability, with severe to profound disability risk up to thirty times greater than in uninfected children.
The study found no clear link between TORCH infections and other neuropsychiatric conditions such as ADHD or OCD, though academic performance was modestly lower even in those without a formal diagnosis. Researchers highlighted that while these infections are uncommon, many are preventable through existing vaccines and prenatal screening, underscoring the public-health importance of maintaining immunisation programmes.
